Abstract:

Various unique factors in South Africa have resulted in an ever-diminishing proportion of the population accepting responsibility for the management of a particular enterprise. Against this background it was considered possible to make a meaningful contribution towards improving management effectiveness in South Africa by determining the extent to which control could be enhanced by innovatively applying established control principles and techniques. To this end a study was made of the basic theory underlying the control task, of established control techniques and of contemporary approaches to control. It clearly emerges that strategic control places different demands on management than does operational and management control. It is therefore imperative that the short and long term be managed on an integrated basis to ensure that the strategic objectives are positively supported by the short-term outputs. It is concluded that subsystems to control the operational, management and strategic facets of an enterprise cannot be left to develop by way of an evolutionary process; they must be specifically designed to provide for needs.